System and method for resolving transactions

ABSTRACT

A method for the online settling of a transaction in which network communications are established between a user, such as a debtor, and a server is presented. The method comprises receiving information, at the server, regarding the transaction, seeking available information pertinent to the transaction from at least one source external to the server and the user, processing data from the available information using a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of a party to the transaction located at the server, and presenting a transaction settlement offer set to the user based on at least one decision made by the rules based engine. While online, the user/debtor may accept one of the offers or engage in further approved negotiation of other offers.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication 60/620,131, “Debt Settlement Computer System and Method,”filed Oct. 19, 2004.

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure in its entirety and in the form as it appearsin documents published or released by the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice from its patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to systems and methods forprocessing and resolving transactions, and more specifically to systemsand methods for collecting debt and/or managing information relating todebt using a computer network.

2. Description of the Related Art

Certain types of financial transactions, and particularly the resolutionof such financial transactions, entail complex, time consuming, andfrequently expensive methods directed toward gathering information andfacilitating resolution of the financial transaction. For example, debtresolution tends to require investigating the ability of the debtor tosatisfy the debt, the terms under which the debt may be settled to thesatisfaction of the creditor, and collection of the debt by typicallytelephoning or otherwise personally contacting the debtor andfacilitating the resolution of the debt. Complexities arise in the debtresolution setting when certain restrictions are put in place, such asan inability for a debt collector to leave appropriate messages for thedebtor at his or her place of work, issues regarding who may obtain acredit report and under what conditions a credit report may be obtained,and so on.

Another transaction resolution scenario involves the field of insuranceclaim settlements. Again, resolution of an insurance claim requiresinvestigation or projection into the amount the claimant is willing toaccept, the amount the insurer is willing to offer, and a mechanism forgetting the insurer representative and the claimant to resolve thetransaction. Typically the insurer's representative and the claimantand/or her representative meet face to face or by telephone to negotiateand settle on a satisfactory sum, based on a variety of factorsincluding but not limited to the severity of the harm, the financialposition of the claimant, the cost of financing the settlement, andother relevant factors.

Regarding debt settlement, the most effective method of debt recoveryhas in the past been via a direct phone call from the creditor (or itsagency) to the debtor. This is perceived by debtors to be generallyintrusive and hostile, as the creditor attempts to enforce collection ofthe debt through certain relatively intimidating verbal tactics.

The individual collector is typically paid on a commission, i.e.receives payment based on the amount collected from the debtor. Paymenton a commission basis can be contradictory to the goals of the creditorand the abilities of the debtor to pay since the collector wants thehighest amount paid to enhance her individual commissions, while thecreditor seeks the highest overall recovery on the portfolio. Regardingthe dichotomy between collecting the highest amount from an individualdebtor and a highest overall recovery, a creditor can often recover moredebt by recovering 30% of a $100 million portfolio at 70% settlementterms ($21 million) than by recovering 20% of the same $100 millionportfolio at 90% ($18 million). Thus the use of overly aggressivetactics to collect one portion of a debt that adversely affect acreditor's ability to collect another portion of the debt, through wordof mouth or other means, can limit the total overall recovery by thecreditor.

Typical costs for recovering debt via collectors include salaries,commissions and operating and infrastructure costs (e.g., electricity,office space, furniture, desktop equipment and support, telephonyequipment, operation and support, administrative support personnel, andaccounting, etc.). Salaries and commissions are required not only forcollecting the debt, but investigating the borrower and her ability topay.

Debt collection is generally performed by entities that did not providethe funds but purchase the debt for a sum of money. These entitiesfunction solely for the purpose of collecting the debt, and as such havecertain rights and restrictions on operation. When one of these entitiesseeks to collect a debt, the longer a debt remains delinquent, the debtincreases due to interest fees and penalties. The overall theprobability of recovery decreases over time. Large segments of debt fall“out of statute” and become legally unrecoverable after 7 years. Thus,contacting debtors and settling accounts must occur within specifiedtime frames. A further complication is that debt buyers and sellers maynot actively pursue accounts during the purchase, hold and sale of adebt portfolio.

Once an entity has purchased a debt and sends out notices ofdelinquency, the entity or its agency tries to contact the debtor,typically via expensive outbound dialer campaigns involving recordedmessages. Changes in contact information present a significant problemin collecting a debt in today's society. Current skip-tracinginformation providers such as Lexis-Nexis, Accurint, TransUnion,Experian, and Equifax return current phone numbers on only 25% of theaccounts submitted. Thus, an average of 75% of the skip-traced debtorscannot be contacted via telephone. Current phone numbers must first bedialed in order to determine whether the telephone number is active andstill used by the original debtor. Telephone numbers are constantlybeing reassigned and the cost of calling changed numbers remains highand is extremely inefficient.

In general, collectors typically have available the threat oflitigation, posting of derogatory information on the debtor's creditbureau, and the offer of settlement at a reduced amount as their primarytools when dealing with the debtor. Collection practices generally arenot optimized for best overall return. Rules of thumb are used forsettlement amounts based on general past experience, but typicallyrequire some amount of investigation to, for example, establish whetherreporting delinquent status to a credit bureau will have a measurableeffect on a debtor and/or the ability for the debtor to pay a particularamount over time. The expense of the collection process does not allowfor a great deal of tuning of the settlement offer to the individualdebtor.

In other transaction resolution scenarios, including but not limited toinsurance claim settlement, charitable pledging, political fundraising,and the like, certain activities are required that can increase costsand require personal presence, such as a person calling another on atelephone, as well as ascertaining ability or willingness to pay or bepaid a certain amount, and so forth. Such requirements can beinefficient and in certain instances difficult, cumbersome, or outrightunavailable.

In light of the above, it would be desirable to have a system and methodthat improves transaction resolution, such as debt settlement andcollection processes, over systems and methods previously employed forsuch purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present design, there is provided amethod for the online settling of a transaction in which networkcommunications are established between a user, such as a debtor, and aserver. The server receives information regarding the transaction.Financial information, macroeconomic factors, historical data, and/orinformation from other sources pertinent to the transaction, such as acredit report, may also be obtained, and the information obtained and/orother information related to the user and/or transaction may beprocessed using a rules engine running on the server. Rules used by therules engine may be predefined or established on behalf of a party tothe transaction, such as a creditor, based on a desired transactionresolution strategy. A transaction settlement offer set comprising atleast one settlement offer may be presented to the user based on one ormore decisions made by the rules engine. While online, the user mayaccept one of the offers or engage in further approved negotiation ofother offers.

According to another aspect of the present design, there is presented amethod for settling a transaction, comprising establishing networkcommunications between a user and a server, receiving information, atthe server, regarding the transaction, seeking available informationpertinent to the transaction from at least one source external to theserver and the user, processing data from the available informationusing a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of aparty to the transaction located at the server, and presenting atransaction settlement offer set to the user based on at least onedecision made by the rules based engine.

These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparentto those skilled in the art from the following detailed description ofthe invention and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, referenceis now made to the following figures, wherein like reference numbersrefer to similar items throughout the figures:

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system for use in accordance with oneembodiment of the present transaction resolution design;

FIG. 2 is a logical representation of software modules executed by theserver of FIG. 1 in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdesign;

FIG. 3A illustrates a process flow for debt collection in accordancewith one embodiment of the present design;

FIG. 3B is an alternate process flow for the present design;

FIG. 4 illustrates an architectural representation of the debtorinteraction side of one embodiment of the present design, implemented ona Microsoft platform;

FIG. 5 is one embodiment of a creditor system architecture;

FIG. 6 shows an alternate embodiment of system operation representing anembodiment of the present design;

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a payment partner server transactionflow;

FIG. 8 is one embodiment of the general concept of mapping source datato dictionaries using schemas;

FIG. 9 illustrates a general creditor/credit agency workflow inaccordance with the present design;

FIG. 10 is a general debtor workflow in accordance with the presentdesign;

FIG. 11 shows an internet browser screen shot having settlement itemsparticular to a credit bureau;

FIG. 12 presents a general set of settlement terms for a particularcreditor or credit agency;

FIG. 13 illustrates a settlement dictionary, including in thisembodiment an option to create and edit debt settlement items and assigntags, such as XML tags, to match source data;

FIG. 14 represents a general format for reports, specifically reportingcollection statistics for a debt portfolio;

FIG. 15 illustrates a general blank form including fields that may befilled with settlement offer data and presented to a creditor forpurposes of issuing settlement offers;

FIG. 16 shows a portfolio manager and illustrates the concept ofOrgUnits;

FIG. 17 is shows a rule manager for a portfolio created by the system;

FIG. 18 illustrates the concept of child portfolios;

FIG. 19 shows a dictionary manager screen;

FIG. 20 is a screen shot of a selected dictionary including attributes;

FIG. 21 illustrates a screen shot viewable by a debtor/user; and

FIG. 22 is an alternate embodiment of the use of settlement terms,including rules, used to form offers to debtors for the embodimentpresented.

The exemplification set out herein illustrates particular embodiments,and such exemplification is not intended to be construed as limiting inany manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

The following description and the drawings illustrate specificembodiments sufficiently to enable those skilled in the art to practicethe system and method described. Other embodiments may incorporatestructural, logical, process and other changes. Examples merely typifypossible variations. Individual components and functions are generallyoptional unless explicitly required, and the sequence of operations mayvary. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in orsubstituted for those of others.

In general, the present design includes a system and method forresolving transactions, including but not limited to resolving debts,resolving insurance settlement claims, establishing charitabledonations, and the like, by providing an automated informationcollection system that collects information about one party, parsesand/or operates on the information collected based on a set of rulesestablished by the other party, and presents certain offers to anindividual based on the information collected and parsed. The offers andinformation are typically provided via a computer network, such as overthe Internet, typically via an encrypted connection. The individual maythen elect one of the options presented or may refuse, whereupon certainadditional information may be solicited and/or entered and thetransaction moved further toward resolution. Even in instances where thetransaction is not resolved using the present design, the informationreceived can be useful in determining the ability and willingness ofboth parties to resolve the transaction and can indicate the nextlogical steps to resolving the transaction, such as initiatinglitigation or refraining from resolving the transaction altogether. Thepresent design thus automates the overall transaction resolutionprocess, and can reduce the costs, time, and complexities associatedtherewith at terms acceptable to the parties to the transaction.

Whereas previous systems have been offered that enable an onlinepresentation of offers to suit a need, such as an individual contactinga website to obtain car insurance or a mortgage, those types of designshave typically presented a variety of offers to a user without anyinformation regarding the user being sought regarding the user beforepresenting offers. While those types of sites may request input from theuser, no external investigation or information seeking occurs before thethree offers from three different lenders, for example, are presented tothe user. The present design not only seeks relevant externalinformation pertinent to the user and/or the transaction, but thepresent design also resolves an existing difference of opinion regardingthe transaction. The present design contemplates two parties havingdifferent positions regarding an existing transaction, such as a debt,insurance settlement, or other two party type of transaction.

The present design brings the two parties together with the ability forone party to employ a set of rules in a rules based engine to form anoffer set to resolve the transaction. The present design thus automatesresolution of the transaction using information externally obtainedregarding the transaction and/or user in a rules based engine havingrules provided in part based on desired negotiation rules for one party.

The elements that implement the various embodiments of the presentsystem and method are described below, in some cases at an architecturallevel and in others at a logical level. Many elements may be configuredusing well known structures. The functionality and processes herein aredescribed in such a manner to enable one of ordinary skill in the art toimplement the functionality and processes within the architecture.

The processing described below may be performed by a single platform orby a distributed processing computer platform. In addition, suchprocessing and functionality can be implemented in the form of specialpurpose hardware or in the form of software or firmware being run by ageneral purpose or network processor. Data handled in such processing orcreated as a result of such processing can be stored in any type ofmemory as is conventional in the art. By way of example, such data maybe stored in a temporary memory, such as in the RAM of a given computersystem or subsystem. In addition, or in the alternative, such data maybe stored in longer term storage devices, such as magnetic disks,rewritable optical disks, and so on. For purposes of the disclosureherein, a computer-readable media may comprise any form of data storagemechanism, including existing memory technologies as well as hardware orcircuit representations of such structures and of such data.

The techniques of the present system and method might be implementedusing a variety of technologies. For example, the methods describedherein may be implemented in software running on a programmablemicroprocessor, or implemented in hardware utilizing either acombination of microprocessors or other specially designed applicationspecific integrated circuits, programmable logic devices, or variouscombinations thereof. In particular, the methods described herein may beimplemented by a series of computer-executable instructions residing ona storage medium such as a carrier wave, disk drive, or othercomputer-readable medium.

Further, while primarily described herein with respect to an exemplarysystem and method for resolving transactions in a debt settlementscenario, the invention and disclosure herein are not intended to be solimited. As noted, the present design may be employed in a variety ofscenarios, further including but not limited to insurance claimsettlements, charitable contributions, and so forth.

As used herein, the term “entity” refers to an individual, corporation,partnership, or other type of legal entity. A specific embodiment of thesystem and method as described below is sometimes referred to as an“Intelligent Debt Settlement system” or an “IDS system”, or even simplyas an “IDS”.

The system may be operated online, or via the Internet, as a web-basedplatform for creditors or their agents (including, for example, debtcollection companies, collection agencies, and legal representatives)that allows debtors to settle accounts online at any time of day.Debtors may log into or connect to the system and settle accounts fromthe privacy of their home or office without the inconvenience of callingthe collections department or a collection agency and talking to acollector. The system enables a creditor to create debt settlement termsonline, using his own decision criteria, thus helping both the debtorand the creditor/collection agency more rapidly reach a mutuallybeneficial resolution online without involving the agency's collectors.

When the debtor engages in an online session, the system may acquirecertain credit information, including but not limited to a creditreport. Based on the credit information so located and collectioncriteria predefined by the creditor, the creditor/collection agency maydetermine the settlement offers available to the debtor based on thedebtor's ability to pay. The debtor may choose a most desirablesettlement offer in a less adversarial environment. The system may beemployed to process payments using online bill paying techniques, andthe system may update credit bureaus with current information, such asactual settlement of the debt. The system may send notification to allappropriate parties memorializing the transaction. The system mayprovide creditor information so that a creditor may view and managereal-time portfolio settlement parameters online.

The system generally may be implemented using open standards. The systemmay be, for example, built in Microsoft Visual Studio NET and SQL Server2000 and may be fully XML compliant. The system may run in a secure datacenter and may be enabled as a web service to provide the technologyfoundation for its strategic enterprise partners.

End users of the system may include delinquent consumer debtors withaccess to the Internet. For purposes of defining the entitiespotentially using and/or associated with the system, such parties mayinclude “creditors,” namely entities that loan money to other entities,such as individuals, and are owed money by these “debtors.” Entities mayinclude banks, credit unions, and other lending institutions, but alsomay include others who provide money, goods, and/or services toentities, such as attorneys, physicians, and so forth. A “primarycreditor” is a creditor having an internal collection facility orcapability. In this scenario, “debtors” are those entities who haveincurred the debt from the creditors. Individuals, partnerships,corporations, government entities, and virtually any person or businessstructure may become a debtor. A “collection agency” collects on behalfof a primary creditor, typically for a percentage of the fees recovered.A “collection discounter” typically purchases debt and collects thatdebt internally, or in-house. A collection discounter is independent ofthe creditor or primary creditor, while a collection agency is typicallyan agent of the creditor or primary creditor.

A logical overview of the system is illustrated in FIG. 1. From FIG. 1,a computer system 100 includes a server 102 used generally fortransaction resolution. Server 102 may be in communication over acommunication network 110 with a debtor device 106 such as, for example,a personal computer or PDA. Creditor server 104, operated for or onbehalf of a creditor (e.g., a creditor of a debtor operating debtordevice 106) may be connected by a communication network 108 to server102. Collection software 120, which may be existing software used by acreditor, runs on creditor server 104. Credit bureau server 116communicates with server 102 over communications network 107. Paymentpartner server 114 communicates with server 102 over communicationsnetwork 109.

Communication networks 107, 108, 109 and 110 may be, for example, theInternet or a local or wide area network. An application program, forexample an Internet browser or another application to provide agraphical or other user interface to a debtor, may run on debtor device106 and provide access by the debtor to server 102. A debtor account onserver 102 may be activated or accessed, for example, using logoninformation provided by the debtor.

Server 102 may execute software 112, described in more detail below.Information regarding debtors, for example associated with debts held bythe creditor operating creditor server 104, may be stored inaccount/transaction database 118 accessible by server 102. Note thatother information may be obtained by the server either from internal orexternal sources to facilitate the transaction and to enable applicationof the rules described below with respect to software 112 to the datareceived in order to present the user with an offer set. Examples ofinformation sought include information related in some manner to theuser or the transaction, such as macroeconomic data, financialinformation, transaction information, personal information, or otherpertinent data. For example, if a creditor in a debt transaction wishesto extend a time period for settling a debt when a user/debtor lives ina geographic area suffering from a natural disaster, the system mayobtain the conditions of the area where the debtor lives. Suchinformation seeking may be done based on the rules presented or separatefrom the rules presented. Such information may be obtained from, forexample, the account/transaction database 118, from the creditor server104, or from some additional remote source not illustrated in FIG. 2,such as a publicly accessible weather server or financial data server.

Software 112 may interact with collection software 120 so thatdebtor-related data is synchronized between server 102 and creditorserver 104, such as in a real-time or secure batch process.

In general, the system illustrated in FIG. 1 operates to get the debtorand creditor or creditor representative/agent together to process thetransaction, typically by offering a certain number of options to thedebtor based on rules established by the creditor, wherein theinformation provided by the creditor may be parsed and processed toestablish the options made available to the debtor. Server 102 may holdor have access to certain information but may functionally operate tohold information, collect information, and manage contact between thedebtor operating debtor device 106 and creditor server 104, creditbureau server 116, and payment server 114.

FIG. 2 illustrates the logical arrangement of software modules that maybe executed by server 102 as part of software 112. Some or all of theselogical modules could, for example, be distributed across multipleservers. Debtor interface 222 may provide an interface to debtors usingdebtor device 106 and provide information provided from such debtors todecision engine 206. Credit bureau module 202 may obtain credit reportsfrom credit reporting bureaus for the debtor currently accessing server102.

Credit reports typically come to either an entity investigating creditor an individual requesting a credit report in a form having significantamounts of information, including but not limited to account entitiessuch as credit card issuers, auto and home loan creditors, and mayinclude information such as payments made or missed, judgments,bankruptcies, and other pertinent information. In certain instances, acredit rating or credit score is computed and provided. Typically thereport includes the person or entity's name, and other identifyingcharacteristics, such as an address, telephone number, birth date, birthplace, social security number, or other personal information. Forpersons or entities having significant activity, such a credit reportcan include hundreds or even thousands of individual pieces ofinformation.

Credit reports are generally distributed in a format particular to theirissuer. For example, Credit Report Bureau A may provide a script orother data format, such as a series of records, that includes (in order)Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Current Street Address, CurrentCity, Current State, Current Zip Code, Current Telephone Number,Bankruptcies, Date of Bankruptcy, Court of Bankruptcy, Account Name,etc. Credit Report Bureau B may provide a different script or other dataformat that includes First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Current AreaCode, Current Telephone Number, Current Street Number, Current Street,Current Unit Number, Current State, Current Zip Code, Credit Score,Account Name, Account Status, Payment By Month on Account, and so forth.While the same general information may be included, the format andordering may be completely different, and different entries may bepresent. The result is a different credit report for each issuer.

The system 100 obtains the credit report in the form provided by thecredit bureau server 107 at the credit bureau module 202. Typicallycredit bureau identification information is provided with the creditreport, such as the credit report is provided by Credit Report Bureau A.Alternately, the credit bureau module 202 may be instructed to obtain acredit report from Credit Bureau A on individual X and may contact thecredit bureau server 116 to obtain the credit report. At that point,credit bureau module 202 would know the credit bureau server beingcontacted, i.e. that of company A, and would be able to forward thatinformation to parser module 204 if not present in the credit report.

Simply put, credit bureau module 202 receives a request, typically fromthe decision engine 206, to obtain a credit report from credit bureau A.Credit bureau module 202 then obtains the credit report from the creditbureau server 116 for credit bureau A, and may perform some level offunctionality on the report received, such as converting the report intoa format usable by parser module 204 or locating certain limitedinformation. In general, credit bureaus generate information and reportsin a consistent manner and format, and thus a report from a bureau willadhere to a predefined format. If this format changes, such as by addingnew fields or data, that information may be accommodated by changing theexpected parameters within credit bureau module 202 or parser module204.

The credit bureau module 202 combined with parser module 204 may performcertain functionality, while certain functions are performed by thecredit bureau module 202 and others by the parser module 204. Ingeneral, however, the parser module takes the information received inthe form of a credit report and parses the information into usefulinformation to the system, and discards any unnecessary information. Theinformation extracted depends on the situation, but may be appreciatedand understood beforehand, such as retaining the individual's first andlast names but discarding current street address. The result ofinformation parsing may be a set of information in a desired format thatcan be operated upon by other modules in the system.

The system may parse information based on the rules generated for theparticular creditor or credit agency. For example, if a certain creditoronly wishes to offer a transaction based on an individual's creditscore, bankruptcy history, and current bank balance in all accounts,only that information may be extracted by the credit bureau module 202and the parser module 204. Thus the system parses information based onthe report provided in combination with the rules established by eitherthe creditor/credit agency or optionally by the party maintaining thesoftware 102. Rules for individual creditors may form part of theschemas 216 and/or dictionary 214 and thus may be available to theparser module, either via the decision engine 206 or independent of thedecision engine (not shown).

As an example, credit bureau A may provide a credit reportelectronically in a particular format. The credit bureau module 202 mayreceive the credit report knowing it is from credit bureau A. The creditreport may have been generated as a result of an inquiry by creditor orcredit agency P. Thus the credit bureau module 202 and parser module 204may know that a credit report from credit bureau A is being parsed forthe benefit of creditor or credit agency P. With this information, theparser may acquire from the credit report only that information neededbased on the rules for creditor or credit agency P. Based on the rulesgenerated for creditor or credit agency P, the only inputs required toperform the rules may be number and dates of bankruptcies, delinquentpayments more than 60 days on at least two accounts, amount of moneyavailable in all known bank accounts, and credit score. Based on theinputs required for the rules, the parser may then extract the requiredinformation from the credit bureau A report.

Alternately, a uniform set of rules may be developed wherein theinformation retrieved may be a general or universal set of informationindependent of creditor or credit agency. For example, the parser mayuniversally retrieve credit score, funds available in all bank accounts,identification information, total number of delinquent payments, numberand dates of bankruptcies, and total credit available for an individual.While this information may be located in different places in creditreports from credit bureaus A, B, C, and so forth, this type ofinformation is typically available in a standard credit report and maybe extracted from a bureau's credit report.

Note that while certain examples are provided here and throughout thisdocument, these examples are meant to be illustrative and not limitingas to the functionality of the present system and method. Other examplesand implementations are possible and this document should not be limitedby the examples presented.

The result from parser module 204 is a set of information parsed from aparticular credit report for a particular entity that may include onlythat information pertinent to a particular creditor or credit agency.

In other words, parser module 204 may parse information from a creditreport for processing and decision-making by decision engine 206. Morespecifically, parser module 204 may extract and calculate user orcreditor/credit agency defined credit report items and current accountdata, and then submit both the calculated bureau and account data todecision engine 206 for decision making processing.

Decision engine 206 may compute, calculate and generate multiplesettlement offers for the debtor based on information received from theindividual's credit report, including, for example, the debtor's abilityto pay and the debtor's bank and credit card account history. Thishistory may be determined, for example, by accessing account/transactiondatabase 118 using decision engine 206. Account/transaction database 118may contain information about particular debtors either acquired bymeans independent of those modules shown in FIG. 1, or from the modulesprovided such as credit bureau server 116, payment partner server 114,or from the debtor via debtor device 106. Information may include, butis not necessarily limited to, previous information obtained about aparticular debtor either from a credit bureau or otherwise, such aspayment history, credit score, bankruptcies, delinquent payments, and soforth, as well as identifying information. In the vent certaininformation is unavailable at a later date, any information about debtorstored on the debtor account database may be used where appropriate.Further, if a debtor logs onto the system and selects or refuses toselect certain options presented, that information can be maintainedfor, at the very least, access times and accessing URLs by the debtorwhere appropriate. Debtor interface 222 may also assist in providingthis history data to decision engine 206 by accessingaccount/transaction database 118.

Debtor interface 222 serves two functions: providing an interface to thedebtor directly, such as during an online session, and possiblyaccessing the debtor account database where appropriate. A typicalsession will be prompted by notifying the debtor in some fashion, suchas by prerecorded telephone message, letter, or possibly electroniccontact such as email or text messaging. The debtor may then access anestablished web site typically controlled and/or operated by theowner/operator of server 102. The user may log into the site usingstandard, typically secure Internet protocols, such as by theuser/debtor logging into the web site, essentially connecting the debtorwith the system 100 via the debtor interface 222. The debtor may bepresented with a series of identification questions, establishing theuser's identity including but not limited to providing a social securitynumber, answering questions that collectively only the correctuser/debtor might know, such as “When is your birthday,” “At whichbranch did you open your Bank of America account,” and “What is the lastname of the attorney that represented you in your 1994 bankruptcy?” Theuser may need to answer a series of questions to establish identity.Additionally, the user/debtor may be provided a code when he or she isinitially contacted, such as when the debtor receives a letter, email,text message, or telephone message, and the user/debtor may be asked toprovide that code in addition to answering other pertinentidentification questions. Once debtor interface 222 identifies the userto a satisfactory degree, where satisfactory is determined by thesituation and the desire of the credit agency or entity controlling ormaintaining the server 102. More security may be needed in extremecases. Other methods of authentication may be used, including but notlimited to voice recognition hardware and software, fingerprintrecognition, and so forth, to decrease likelihood of an errantidentification.

Once a user has been verified or authenticated, the fact that the debtorhas logged onto the system is noted and may be stored, such as in theaccount/transaction database 118. The user/debtor may identify the debtfor which he or she is inquiring, typically by selecting from a menuwhich may contain one or more debts available to be settled. At thatpoint, one of two things may happen. If a credit report is available andhas been parsed by parser module 204, the decision engine may recognizethe debt as being associated with a creditor and may obtain theapplicable creditor rules and decision criteria and compute a set ofoffers to present to the user/debtor, such as by presenting a set ofoptions on screen to the debtor. If the credit report has not beenreceived and parsed, the user may be told to wait for a reasonableamount of time, such as a few minutes. Otherwise, if the credit reportmay not be obtained and parsed within a reasonable amount of time, theuser may be told to return at a specified time or thereafter. Forexample, a message may be transmitted to the debtor/user that at leastone settlement offer is being prepared and the debtor/user should logback on after 4:00 p.m. EST. The user may be provided with a sessioncode or password(s) so that she does not need to go through theidentification process questioning again.

If the decision engine 206 has available parsed credit reportinformation, either upon authentication of the user/debtor or after theuser/debtor has reconnected via debtor interface to the system, thedecision engine 206 may obtain schemas, rules, and a dictionaryappropriate for the creditor/credit agency or other entity seekingresolution of the debt transaction. The decision engine 206 relies ondictionary 214 and schemas 216 in presenting the set of options ordecisions to the user/debtor. In this context, a schema is a structuredframework of rules appropriate to the situation. As an example, a schemamay be associated with creditor/credit agency X, and may include rulessuch as:

“Only offer a maximum of three options to any debtor at any one time”

“If the user/debtor has incurred more than one bankruptcy in the lastten years, the only offer made available will be payment of between 100%and 90% of the debt”

“Offers made will only be available at the time of initial logon, and ifthe debtor/user logs out or loses connection for any reason, the onlyoffer made available upon subsequent logon will be payment of between100% and 90% of the debt”

“If the debtor/user has a credit score over 650, the debtor/user will beoffered three options initially, including (1) an offer to settleimmediately for 100% of the outstanding debt, (2) an offer to finance100% of the debt over 12 monthly installments at 8% interest per annum,and (3) an offer to finance 100% of the debt over 24 monthlyinstallments at 10% interest per annum. The debtor/user will bepresented with a statement that agreeing to settle the debt under option(1) will not materially affect his/her credit score, but options (2) and(3) will cause a report of a late payment to be reported to allappropriate credit bureaus. If the debtor does not accept any of options(1), (2), and (3), then offer the user/debtor a second set of optionsincluding one option, settlement of 90 percent of the debt with astatement that such payment may be made immediately but will be reportedas ‘deficient’ to all appropriate credit bureaus”

“If the debtor/user has a credit score over 675, and has a ratio of thisdebt to money available in all accounts of less than 5 percent, and theratio of all other outstanding debt to money available in all accountsis less than 25 percent, then make four offers to the debtor user: (1)an offer to settle for 90 percent of the outstanding debt, with noreport made to credit bureaus; (2) an offer to settle for 85 percent ofthe debt for 12 payments at 10 percent annually, with a delinquencyreport to credit bureaus; (3) an offer to settle for 80 percent of thedebt for 24 payments at 12.5 percent annually, with a delinquency reportto credit bureaus; and (4) an offer to settle for 50 percent of the debtpaid immediately, and the remaining 50 percent financed over 12 monthsat 5 percent per annum, with no report made to credit bureaus.”

As may be appreciated from the foregoing, the rules and schemas may begenerated to include virtually any set of rules and conditions and maybe very complex. The set of rules and schemas in schema module 216 maybe provided by the creditor/credit agency, or the entity controlling theserver 102, or a combination of both. For example, creditor B may desirea set of schemas to apply under certain conditions, including applyingfinancing terms at specific percentage rates per annum. The entitymaintaining the server may automatically increase the percentages by0.25 percent to be allocated to the entity maintaining the server.Alternately, the entity maintaining the server may dictate that due tocertain regulations in specific jurisdictions, under no circumstancesmay a debtor in a particular jurisdiction be offered a settlement thatincludes a financing percentage rate of over 25 percent. Certaincreditors may only offer general guidelines for settlement offers, andthe entity maintaining the server 102 may implement the guidelines andestablish the rules and schemas.

For example, a creditor may simply indicate a desire to make exactlythree offers to every debtor/user, including one offer for 100 percentof the outstanding debt and two financing offers with percentage ratesand terms based on the debtor/user's credit score, with lower rates forhigher credit scores. The entity maintaining server 102 can take thisinformation and create rules and schemas implementing the desires of thecreditor and can implement a rate scheme based on debtor/user creditscore, with specific restrictions for jurisdictions having maximuminterest rate requirements. For example, if the debtor/user has a creditscore of under 500, the financing rate for both offers may be 25percent, with different terms; if over 500 but less than 650, then 10percent for 12 months and 12 percent for 24 months are offered; if over650 but less than 750, then 6 percent for 12 months and 8 percent for 24months; and if over 750, then 5 percent over either 12 or 24 months.

Reporting to credit bureaus may be offered if desired, and rates andconditions may change periodically, thereby requiring a change toschemas or the data used to apply the rules. For example, if a schemacontains a rule using the prime lending rate to determine financingterms, the prime rate may be implemented in the system, such as in thedictionary 214, and changed periodically, or the decision engine mayobtain the prime rate constantly through some type of interface to adevice that provides the prime rate updated periodically.

Decision engine 206 is therefore typically a rules-based engine thatuses rules previously defined, for example, by the administrator ofserver 102 or another entity having a business or other relationship toserver 102. The rules used by engine 206 may therefore also includeinformation defined by creditors in creditor decision criteria 212, andthe decision engine 206 may be interactive, meaning that personsexternal to the decision engine 206 may provide information that may beused to present offers via the debtor interface 222.

Thus the overall functionality of decision engine is to interact withthe debtor via debtor interface 222, and once the debtor isauthenticated, obtain the parsed credit information for the user and anyinformation about the debtor from the account/transaction database 118.Based on the specific debt owed, the decision engine uses dictionary214, schemas 216, and creditor decision criteria 212 to prepare a set ofoffers to the debtor, the set including at least one offer. The offersare then conveyed to the user via the debtor interface 222 and thedebtor may select one for resolution of the transaction.

The rules used to generate the set of offers by decision engine 206therefore may include, for example, a large number of variousmathematical, logical, or other functions that use data associated withthe debtor as operands. Data could include debtor information providedby a creditor such as, for example, size of the debt, the date the debtwas created, and the last payment date. Other information used by thesefunctions and other rules may include data obtained from a credit reportobtained for a debtor such as, for example, the debtor's current creditscore.

Dictionary 214 generally represents a translator of terms employedwithin the credit report, schemas, and creditor decision criteria. Forexample, one credit report may use the term “Last Name” while anothercredit report may call the field “Surname,” essentially meaning the samething. The dictionary provides for translation of terms received fromcredit reports or within creditor schemas to a term that can berecognized by decision engine 206. Another example would be a creditreport containing the field “last delinquent payment,” used by decisionengine as “date of last delinquency” and contained in other creditreports as “last missed payment,” “most recent unfulfilled obligation,”etc. In addition to converting from one set of terminology to another,conversions and other translation parameters may be included indictionary 214, such as when an interest rate is provided as a monthlyrate, conversion may be provided to an annual rate. Translations anddictionary entries may be provided for translations between creditreports, rules within schemas, and internal variables employed by thedecision engine 206. In general, the decision engine may obtain rulesand schemas from creditor decision criteria 212 and/or schemas 216 andcredit reports from parser module 204 and credit bureau module 202 andmay translate them into a format usable by decision engine 206.

Schemas 216 may be used to import source data, for example, providedfrom creditor server 104, to server 102. Schemas may be, for example,edited using a schema editor, known to those skilled in the art, thatmay run on server 102 and be accessible by a creditor using the system100. Such an editor may alternately run separately from the system andmay enable providing an edited schema to the system 100. Source data,namely the source of data for the schemas, such as rules, criteria, andother information typically originates with a computer system or servermaintained by a creditor, such as creditor server 104. Source datausually has very different data structures depending on the creditorsystem provides the data, and thus data received by the server may beconverted before being stored as a schema.

Dictionaries may be produced or augmented using client specific schemas,where dictionaries are used to translate information from one form orversion to another. Schemas may be analyzed and depending on the terms,terminology, formats, and aspects employed in the schema, certaintranslations or conversions may be offered in the dictionary. Suchanalysis is typically performed offline by a human but can in certainlimited circumstances be automated. Source data may be processed througha schema 216 to create one or more different rules dictionaries (e.g.,one or more of dictionaries 214). ETL (extend, transfer, and load)processing may be done on these source data files as part of thisimporting. One or more source data files may be selected for processingby a particular schema. The choice of the source data file(s) and theschema can result in the production of different dictionaries 214 whereeach dictionary may have different rules and field types.

Dictionaries 214 may include definitions (as mentioned above) thatinclude, for example, both offer variables and guidelines, whereguidelines may be offered as part of a dictionary 214, schema 216, orcreditor decision criteria 212 or other appropriate location in theserver 102. Guidelines may be defined requirements that a debtor'sprofile must meet in order for a certain offer or set of offers to bemade. Offer variables may be functions used to generate offers based on,for example, predefined mathematical functions. For example, a certainoffer may require that a debtor live in a particular state and the offermay be generated based on a mathematical formula that uses, for example,the size of the debt and the number of days since the last payment. Theoffer variables may include adjustments to basic default values wheresuch adjustments are governed by a rule. For example, where an offervariable sets a value (e.g., “Expiration (days)=25”), a rule such as,for example, “If Accrued Interest >=1000 then Value(Expiration(days))=37”, can be used to create an adjustment of the initial value of25 if the defined condition is satisfied by the data corresponding tothe debtor. These rules may be housed in the dictionary 214, but aremore typically included as part of creditor decision criteria 212 orschemas 216 and may be located in other positions within the server 102.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of the general concept of mappingsource data to dictionaries 214 using schemas 216. Each schema 216 isdefined to match up to data produced by a different source, such as afinancial institution or other creditor or credit agency. A schemaimports and transforms source data into one or more selecteddictionaries 214. Mapping may occur using a schema map. Fields of sourcedata are typically different from the final fields desired in thedictionaries 214. For example, source data may include fields such as“prime lending rate” having four digits while the server 102 operatesusing a field called “prime rate” having five digits. The schema may mapprime lending rate into prime rate and add a 0 to the value provided.

Source data may be mapped to more than one dictionary, and two or moresource data files may be mapped to a common dictionary. Using formulasin the schema map, certain pieces of source data may become calculatedor derived values that may be placed into many different fields in theone or more dictionaries 214.

The server may alternately create a second dictionary as a standalonedictionary or a copy of a first dictionary, where the second dictionarymay be edited to have rules different from the first dictionary. Inaddition, the mapping process discussed above can be used to export datafrom a dictionary, for example, by creating a schema that transformsdictionary data into an export data file.

Settlement offers will vary by debtor. The settlement offers may, forexample, present differently structured financial terms to the debtor.Offers may include a discounted lump sum immediate payment and a monthlypayment amount financed at a stated interest rate.

Creditor decision criteria 212 represents information (e.g., stored inmemory accessible by server 102) that may be used by decision engine 206in generating settlement offers. Criteria 212 may be informationpreviously provided by one or more creditors each independentlyaccessing server 102 using its own creditor server 104. Criteria 212 maybe stored as a set of rules that decision engine 206 follows ingenerating offers.

The various rules used by decision engine 206 also may be optimized byperforming analytics on the rules and the corresponding collectionresults achieved. Rules may be optimized for a particular creditor, fora given set of debtors, or for other specific situations.

As an example, optimization may take into account recovery rates ifdesired by the creditor/credit agency or entity controlling or operatingserver 102. If a recovery rate for a group of debts is approaching 100percent, the offers made to remaining debtors may change in some manner,such as reducing the financing rates or offering 90 percent settlementoffers rather than 100 percent settlement offers. Conversely, if therecovery rate approaches 0 percent or is down from that desired, higherfinance rates or an inability to finance may be offered, or offeringonly 100 percent settlement offers rather than 90 percent settlementoffers. Other optimizations of rules may be provided.

Recovery manager 208 is an optional aspect of the design wherein acreditor may have specified that debtor offers be reviewed and/orapproved by a collector or supervisor, for example, designated by thecreditor. As part of the foregoing transaction resolution process, acreditor may log onto server 102 in order to see, for example, a queueof alternative offers being presented by debtors. The creditor mayapprove, disapprove, or otherwise initiate an action for a particulardebtor.

It should be noted that while the logical representation presented inFIG. 2 of the software illustrates various blocks, modules, andcomponents, the lines of demarcation between the various components arenot hard and fast, and certain functionality may be performed by variouscomponents, including single components or combinations of components,and the functionality described herein is not a hard and fast set ofrequirements. For example, decision engine 206 may simply apply therules and schemas to the parsed credit report from parser module 204,and recovery manager 208 may develop and present the offers to theuser/debtor via debtor interface 222.

Payment processor 210, also an optional component, may execute some orall of the payment processing and accounting functions of the collectionand recovery process. The user/debtor, as noted previously, may select asettlement offer that includes payment terms financed over a period oftime, or other type of structured settlement. Payment processor 210 mayenable the user/debtor to utilize multiple forms of payment, which mayincrease the debtor's ability to pay his debt. For example, paymentprocessor 210 may enable a specified sum to be charged to a credit card,ATM card, or bank account periodically. Payment processor 210 may alsomanage the distribution of payments and/or credits to any party (e.g.,any party related to the original debt transaction of the debtor and/orthe settlement transaction handled by server 102). Payment distributionmay be based on portfolio distribution rules stored, for example, onserver 102 and accessible by payment processor 210. For example, if acredit card issuer receives 4 percent of a transaction and the remaining96 percent is split as 2 percent to the entity operating the server 102and 98 percent to the creditor/credit agency for any debts in a grouppaid by credit card, the payment processor allocates 4 percent, 1.92percent, and 94.08 percent to the credit card issuer, entity operatingthe server 102, and creditor/credit agency, respectively. Thus thefunctionality of payment processor 210 is to divide the paymentsreceived in any form and distribute the payments received according to aset of predetermined rules. In order to perform this functionality,payment processor 210 may interact with payment partner server 114,where payment partner server represents, for example, a server operatingat a bank, credit card issuer, or other entity, and may be used toprocess the transaction selected by the debtor/user and divide thepayment made immediately and thereafter among the appropriate partiesaccording to a set of established rules. The rules may be located inschemas 216, or other appropriate part of the system, including but notlimited to recovery manager 208 or payment processor 210.

The present system affords the ability, within server 102 and inassociation and via software 112, to establish divisions within paymentpartners, creditors, credit agencies, and so forth, in the form of unitscalled OrgUnits, or units within an organization. An organization, suchas a credit agency, may be broken into various divisions or units, suchas collections, financing, accounting, and so forth, and even brokendown within those divisions or units into sub-units. The present systemestablishes those OrgUnits and enables rules to be applied by anindividual OrgUnit or collectively for all OrgUnits. Payments may bemade to or allocated to individual OrgUnits in an organization.

Portfolio distribution rules typically are general ledger (G/L) Accountdistribution rules. Each OrgUnit may have 2 or more charts of accounts(typically a cash-basis Trust Chart and an accrual-basis OperationalChart). When an online payment is received by an OrgUnit via the paymentprocessor 210, distribution rules defined for each Chart of Accountsgenerally specify how the payment is to be applied to Fees, Principaland Interest balances, and in which order. Additionally, the samedistribution rule may specify a “split” transaction, for exampledebiting Accounts Receivable and crediting Revenue in the accrualOperational Chart. Account Distributions define all in-flows andout-flows of money to the system 100. Furthermore, within the portfoliomanager 220, accounting rules may be bound to Portfolio LifecycleEvents, such as Paid-in-Full, or Promise-to-Pay, thus binding specificpools of debt to specific contractual arrangements governing that debtwithin the system 100. Portfolio manager 220 may therefore receiveinformation related to a resolved transaction and, once the payment hasbeen processed by payment processor 210, account for those distributionsto each OrgUnit for each dollar received and paid. Certain accountingrules may be employed to appropriately allocate the distributionsbetween OrgUnits.

Reporting engine 218 collects information regarding the debt, theactions of the debtor, the offers made, the offer accepted, the paymentmade and any payments to be made in the future, and other relevantinformation computed within the system and provided by the system andcan compile the information as desired in a report format, such as in aspreadsheet or other document form. For example, a creditor/creditagency can receive a report, either on demand or periodically, of theamount of a debt pool settled, the terms of settlement includingpayments received, the form in which they were received, and futurepayments to be received on particular dates. The result is a generallyconfigurable set of reports that may be generated by the reportingengine 218 for the benefit of creditors, credit agencies, the entity orentities controlling the server 102, and any other appropriate entityhaving an interest in the transactions resolved by the system 100.

The reporting engine 218 may therefore generate and optionally sendperiodic reports (e.g., daily, weekly or monthly) to some or allauthorized parties. Reporting engine 218 may communicate with, forexample, payment processor 210 to obtain debt status information andrecovery manager 208 to access, for example, creditor predefined rulesgoverning the reporting of information.

Portfolio manager 220 may provide debt balance management and themigration and/or sales of debt portfolios to other entities. Debtbalance management in this situation is again guided by rules, such aspayment of taxes to governmental entities by specific OrgUnits, paymentsby OrgUnits to other entities or OrgUnits of prearranged quantities,such as rents, fees, dues, or other inter-entity transactions, and otherrelevant payments as dictated by rules maintained on the system 100.

The functions of portfolio manager 220 therefore may be based on rulesincluding information from creditor decision criteria 212. As a furtherexample, portfolio manager 220 may group debts by sub-portfolios forsale based on a predetermined set of criteria (e.g., established by acreditor). In this manner, portfolios may be sold or transferred betweenentities or OrgUnits if they fit predetermined criteria. Such anarrangement may include credit agency A providing a rule that it wouldbe willing to take on a debt portfolio from a creditor (not anothercredit agency) if the amount due in the entire portfolio is between $1million and $5 million and the average credit score for all borrowers isover 625 and no debt is over 120 days delinquent. Credit agency A mayspecify a rule that it would purchase such a debt portfolio by payingthe creditor 20 cents per dollar of debt owed. Thus rules are used tomanage the portfolio using portfolio manager 220.

A general process flow is illustrated in FIG. 3A, while an alternateprocess flow is presented in FIG. 3B. From FIG. 3A, point 301 indicatesthat the creditor or credit agency may synchronize current account datafor all debts and debtor information with the server 102. Point 302indicates that the creditor or credit agency can manage, segment,distribute, and transfer debt portfolios based on established rules andapproval for such transactions, either between entities or betweenOrgUnits.

The debtor may be offered an incentive from the creditor to settle thedebt. The debtor may be offered such incentives using, for example,print mail, telephone, or electronic mail. As noted, the debtor is knownto the creditor or its assignee or agency, and thecreditor/assignee/agency typically has some form of contact informationfor the debtor. While persons may have relocated or provided incorrectcontact information, point 303 indicates an attempt by thecreditor/assignee/agency to contact the debtor in the manner suggested.Typically the debtor may be provided with a web site and a code, and acertain number of debtors may respond to such a solicitation.Alternately, the debtor may contact the creditor/assignee/agency andindicate an interest to resolve the debt, at which time the debtor maybe provided with information for contacting or logging onto the server102. Thus various means of establishing contact with the debtor may beemployed, with the end result being the debtor being provided withcontact information for contacting server 102.

Once a debtor logs onto, for example, a website hosted by server 102 andauthenticates himself or herself, the software 112 may request a creditreport for the debtor identified using credit bureau module 202 at point304. As credit reports can typically only be obtained with specificpermission from an authorized entity, the credit report request may bedeemed by the credit bureau as a request associated with the creditor ofthe debtor (or with the creditor's collection agency) when requested bythe credit bureau module 202 from credit bureau server 116. The creditreport may be obtained in this manner, and data from the credit reportmay be parsed by parser module 204 and used by decision engine 206 asdescribed above at point 305.

At point 306, settlement offers may be presented to the debtor on, forexample, a webpage. Offers are calculated by the decision engine 206 asdiscussed above, according to the parsed information from the creditreport and the rules established by the creditor or credit agency. Anexample of a set of offers to a debtor is presented in FIG. 6. Eachoffer may have an expiration date associated therewith and an icon orbutton for the debtor to select to enable acceptance of a particularoffer.

At point 307, the webpage generated by server 102 may also present, forexample, an icon or button for the debtor to click to indicate a desireto negotiate other terms with the creditor using server 102. Terms ofsuch a negotiation may be specified by the creditor or credit agencyand/or entity controlling the server. For example, a creditor may notwish to offer an ability to negotiate. Credit agency A may offer theuser/debtor one attempt to negotiate, while credit agency B offers threeopportunities to negotiate.

Negotiation enables the user to set terms according to his or herdesires, and thus makes available to the debtor various appropriatefields, such as in an HTML web page having data entry fields, for datasuch as amount user/debtor is willing to pay now, amount per monthuser/debtor is willing to pay per month over the next 12 months, 24months, etc., interest rate desired, term desired for repayment, and soforth. Terms offered should be consistent. As an example, the user maybe willing to pay a certain amount over a number of months and may wishto make an arrangement that accomplishes this goal. If the two offersinitially made are to pay $500 per month over 12 months and $275 permonth over 24 months, the debtor may consider these offers difficult orimpossible but may be willing to pay $150 per month for a number ofmonths. The user may then enter the amount he is willing to pay andrequest or specify the term for payments. Alternately, if one initialoffer is to settle the debt for 20% of the amount outstanding to be paidimmediately and financing the remaining 80% over three years at 8%interest per annum, that information may be entered.

The response from the system 100, specifically server 102, depends onthe rules established for negotiation. If rules are established toaccept an offer of 20% now and 80% over three years at 8% interest perannum, the server indicates that the transaction is resolved andproceeds to request information to obtain the 20%, such as by creditcard or from bank account. In most circumstances, the user/debtor is notallowed to go back to the initial offer or offers, and will lose thesuccessive opportunities presented once the user/debtor requests furthernegotiation.

If rules are established to operate on the negotiation offer presentedby the user/debtor, then the decision engine may evaluate thenegotiation offer with the assistance of the modules of FIG. 2 todetermine a response. For example, if 20% now, 80% over 3 years at 8% isreceived, the decision engine 206 may obtain rules and/or schemas thatindicate the creditor has specified on a “first round” of negotiation,no offer of under 50% immediate payment is acceptable, but if an offerof less than 50% immediate payment is received, the decision engine andother modules are to offer 50% immediate payment and 50% financed ateither a 12 or 24 month term at 10%. These counteroffers may be made tothe user.

The user/debtor may select an option and resolve the transaction oralternately the server 102 may indicate the offer made by theuser/debtor is acceptable to the creditor/credit agency based on therules provided. At that point, as indicated at point 308, theuser/debtor may pay using selected forms of payment and may schedule anyagreed upon payments and the form of payment for future payments.

As may be appreciated, at a certain point resolution may be impossible;the user/debtor and the creditor/credit agency rules may not resolve thetransaction. At that point, the user/debtor may be presented with anindication that no resolution has been reached and that the user/debtormay contact the credit agency by telephone to further discussresolution. In any event, the interactive online session at this pointincludes data that can be saved and used to further negotiations or makedecisions based on the likelihood that the transaction can be resolvedsuccessfully. If the distance between positions is significant, thecredit agency may decide to initiate litigation without furtherdiscussions, while another agency may be willing to split the differenceand further negotiate by phone or by using the system with differentrules. A set of rules and schemas for subsequent offers may be availableto enable the user/debtor to logon and further seek to resolve thetransaction.

Alternately, if negotiation is offered, the user may be presented withthe offer in an editable format and may edit the offer presented in anattempt to resolve the transaction.

If a user/debtor elects to negotiate or offer different settlementterms, the user/debtor may alternately be placed into a collector queue,such as in a chat room or other online device/tool, where the queue maybe monitored by a creditor or credit agency having access to server 102.The user/debtor may be notified that his offer has been placed into aqueue and that the debtor will be notified (e.g., via chat, testmessage, or email) when a creditor decision on the offer made hasoccurred.

If the transaction has been resolved, point 309 indicates the system mayprocess the transaction via a third-party trust account partner. Thethird party trust account partner is an entity established to overseeand maintain transactions on behalf of the creditor such that the entityoperating or controlling the server 102 does not need to be directlyinvolved in the handling of funds. Certain laws may prohibit an entityfrom maintaining funds in trust for the creditor, banks, and so forth,and thus a third party trust account partner may be employed, but thisis optional. Further, if the entity operating or controlling the serveris a bank or other permissible holder of funds, a partner may not beneeded or desired. At point 310, the system may distribute fundsaccording to distribution rules as discussed above, such as by usingpayment processing discussed with respect to payment processor 210.Accounting entries may be posted at point 311, and reports generated atpoint 312.

FIG. 3B illustrates an alternate general flow diagram for the overallsystem. Point 351 establishes the rules for each appropriatecreditor/credit agency and does so by OrgUnit. Point 352 loads the debtportfolio onto system 100. At point 353, the user may be notified of theopportunity to settle an outstanding debt. At point 354, the user/debtorlogs onto the system 100 and is authenticated at point 355 and selects adebt at point 356. At point 357, the server 102 seeks to obtain a creditreport for the user using credit bureau module 202, and optionally seeksinformation regarding the debtor from the account/transaction database118. Depending on the amount of time required to obtain the creditreport, the server 102 may either indicate that the user/debtor mayreturn at a certain time and seek the credit report and parse the databefore that time, or may obtain the credit report and parse the datausing parser module 204. Once the data has been parsed and theuser/debtor is available, point 358 causes the decision engine 206 toobtain the appropriate rules for the debt selected, optionally based onthe parsed information, and may also obtain schemas and dictionary termsas well as creditor decision criteria if any exists separate from theforegoing. Based on the schemas, rules, parsed credit information, andother appropriate information available from parts of the system 100,the decision engine prepares a set of offers including at least oneoffer at point 359. The system presents the offer to the user/debtor atpoint 360. At point 361, the user either selects an offer or selectsnegotiation if it is offered. If negotiation is available and selected,the user/debtor is able to enter her offer at point 362. At point 363,the decision is evaluated, typically by the decision engine 206 butpotentially by a creditor/credit agency representative or other entity,and the counteroffer is either accepted or a further offer is made. Atthis point, the system cycles back through making an offer based on therules, evaluating the availability of negotiation and allowing theuser/debtor to make a counteroffer if available. The net result as shownat point 364 is either resolution or stalemate. If resolution occurs,payment processing occurs at point 365, and reporting may occur asrequired at point 366. As may be appreciated, other aspects discussedherein, such as modifying rules based on portfolio activity, may occurthough not shown in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 4 illustrates an architectural representation of the debtorinteraction side of the present design, implemented on a Microsoftplatform. The debtor system 400 employs object oriented programming andSQL database operation to effectuate the functionality described above.In general, objects are created or received and operated on whileperiodically, as necessary, obtaining data for purposes of applyingschemas and rules and presenting offers to the user/debtor. Thearchitecture is split into various tiers interconnected with a webserver that enables access from the outside world via the internet.

From FIG. 4, web server 401 includes an ASP.NET web application 402 usedto interface all appropriate debtor functionality with the internet,such as allowing the debtor to contact the server 102 and interact withthe server for purposes of authentication, etc. ASP.NET web applicationsare typically known to those skilled in the art. Many of the functionsof the debtor interface 222 are performed by web server 401. An objectproxy 403 is provided to provide the data to and from the web server 401and the other tiers in the system to effectuate the functionalitydescribed herein. The debtor system components beyond web server 401comprise object tier server 410, data tier server 420, and bureau tierserver 430. The object tier creates and receives/translates objects forinterfacing with the debtor/user via the web server 401.

Object tier 410 comprises object service 411 and decision engine 412.Object service 411 receives objects and can query the data tier ortranslate the object as necessary and provide the object to decisionengine 412. Much of the functionality of decision engine 206 may beperformed by decision engine 412, including assembling the rules andschemas and applying the rules and schemas to parsed credit reportinformation to develop the set of offers made to the user/debtor andsubsequent negotiations, if any. As shown, object tier 410 interfaceswith both data tier 420 and bureau tier 430 to perform the requisitefunctionality. The decision engine 412 may seek rules and otherinformation from data tier 420, as may the object service 411. Data tier420 comprises SQL server 421, typically a SQL server having access toall the rules, schemas, dictionaries, and other data noted above that isstored for use in creating the offers, managing the debt portfolios, andso forth. The object tier 410 further interfaces with bureau tier 430,typically comprising a payment service module 431 used to establishpayments resultant from successful transaction resolutions.

Payment service module 431 queues and processes payment transactions,routing them to an appropriate Third Party Payment Processor gatewaybased on the method of payment (i.e., ACH, CC, etc.), and further basedon any contracts or arrangements established between the trust partnerOrgUnit and the creditor/credit agency OrgUnit. Creditor/credit agencyOrgUnit A may arrange to process credit card payment transactionsthrough one third party payment processor while processing ACH paymentsthrough another. The system may enable a creditor/credit agency todynamically select a payment partner by displaying to thecreditor/credit agency OrgUnit the available Trust Partner OrgUnits andtheir respective Trust and Payment Processing service offerings. Thecreditor/credit agency can select a Trust Partner and applies forspecific payment services. The Trust Partner may then approve or declinethe application. Payment service applications may be supplemented byquestionnaire data. Approvals and contract variables such as discountrate, transaction fees, start-up costs, and so forth, may employdecision engine 206 according to rules set up for approvals andcontracts, and may result in a payment service contract. Once thesecontracts are established, the user is presented with payment methodsfor debt resolution depending on the active payment service contractsthe creditor/credit agency OrgUnit has established.

Bureau server 430 further includes bureau web service module 432, usedto obtain the data from the credit bureau, such as a credit report, whennecessary and provide the credit report for the debtor/user whenappropriate. The bureau web service module 432 interfaces with theparser service module 433. The bureau web service module 432 performsmuch of the functionality described with the logical credit bureaumodule 202, while the parser service module 433 performs much of thefunctionality associated with parser module 204 in the logicalrepresentation of the present design. The ABS queue processor 434 queuesthe requests for credit reports and distributes them to the appropriateuser/debtor. Hence much of the functionality shown in this FIG. 4performs the logical functions shown in FIG. 2 performed by decisionengine 206, parser module 204, credit bureau module 202, creditordecision criteria 212, debtor interface 222, dictionary 214, and schemas216.

FIG. 5 illustrates the creditor system architecture 500, again includinga server tier 501, object tier 510, data tier 520, and bureau tier 530.Creditor system architecture may be maintained separate from anycreditor but operates on the creditor side of the transaction resolutionprocess, essentially maintaining creditor data and effectuating creditorrelated functionality in the transaction. Again, a Microsoft platformemploying OOP and SQL is shown in this embodiment. The creditor sideenables the creditor, credit agency, or other entity possessing the debtto provide information and enable interfacing with the debtor side ofsystem 100 and facilitate resolution of the transaction. The creditorarchitecture 500 performs the functions needed for the creditor, such asgathering creditor and debtor data, preparing data used in providingoffers, and informing the creditor of transaction resolutions andstatus, and in certain cases preparing reports where desired.

As with the debtor architecture of FIG. 4, the creditor architectureincludes an ASP.NET web application 502 and an object proxy 503 inserver tier 501. In addition, the server tier 501 includes FTPcomponents and a data receiver. A creditor, such as a bank, may maintainan FTP site that includes data, rules, or other appropriate informationuseful in effectuating the transaction resolution process discussed. Inorder to maintain a level of uniformity, the FTP site file folders 504maintain at least a list, and in some circumstances the entire file, ofdata used in the transaction resolution procedure. The presence of thesefolders can facilitate obtaining the rules, schemas, accounts, debts,and so forth used by the system 100. A creditor data receiver 505 isprovided in server tier 501 to write received data to the creditor's FTPsite folders. Alternately, the creditor data receiver may transmitpackages of data directly via email or a secure web service to othercomponents of the system 100. The FTP site file folders 504 and creditordata receiver 505 enable advantageous connections directly to and fromthe creditor, and receive data from and transmit data to creditor agent512.

Object tier 510 comprises a creditor object service 511 and creditoragent 512. Data objects are received by and transferred from this tier.The creditor object proxy 503 may receive and transmit objects forprocessing or after processing for use on the debtor side of the systemarchitecture. The creditor agent 512 creates and encrypts data exportsbound for creditors, transmits encrypted files to the creditor datareceiver 505 running on the server tier 501. Data tier server 520 againmaintains a database and data interaction occurs on this tier 520 usingSQL server 521. Data is of course related to the creditor and creditorrelated data is retrieved and transmitted using this SQL server 521.Bureau tier server 530 comprises agent automation service 531, whichexecutes scheduled events, such as open of day, close of day, end ofmonth, and other processing and accounting requirements. The agentautomation service 531 communicates with external payment processors andother appropriate devices to monitor active transaction status, downloadbatch reports, and perform other creditor related functions. Thetransaction state may be updated in SQL server 521, creating change logsand current status. The bureau tier server 530 may communicate with theobject tier server 510 using MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queueing)notifications to prepare and export data packages. Agent automationservice is less extensive on the creditor side than the functionsperformed in the debtor bureau tier server 430, and simply automatesscheduled events for assessing status and preparing information relatingto reports.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternate embodiment of system operation, or thedecision flow, specifically including many of the logical softwarecomponents of system 100. From FIG. 6, credit bureau 601 represents thecredit bureau from which credit reports may be obtained, genericallyrepresenting all credit bureaus that may be contacted by the system 100.Operation is sequential through the numbers encircled, and decision flowoperation is generally directed by bureau server 602. The first processis to login and obtain a token for a session for purposes ofauthenticating the session, where the session is on the bureau server602. This information passes to both bureau server 602 and decisionengine build profile module 603. Process 2 obtains an extract list, or alist of data to be extracted, while point 3 obtains a report list, or alist of data to be reported by server 602. The extract list and reportlist are typically credit bureau specific, and these decisions aregenerally as discussed with respect to credit bureau module 202 andcreditor decision criteria 212 above. For example, an extract list forcredit bureau A may include the information stored as rules and/orschemas including credit score, debtor first name, debtor last name,most recent bankruptcy filed, number of payments made more than twomonths delinquent, total cash on hand in all accounts, etc. The reportlist may be the information to be reported to the credit bureau, such assuccessful transactions, resolved debts, payment arrangements, and soforth.

Decision flow essentially proceeds from point 4, posting a request,generally a request for a credit report from a particular credit bureau,potentially based on the extract list and possibly the report list. Atpoint 5, the bureau login is obtained by the bureau server 602 fromRDBMS (relational database management system) 604. Point 6 inserts therequest in the bureau server queue, relying on the RDBMS 604 for presentqueue information and data relating to entry of additional requests inthe queue. Once the bureau server 602 has the queue information, itsends a request, by MSMQ or other appropriate transmission mechanism, tothe bureau server queue 605. Bureau server queue 605 may be executed ina desired order, and eventually the request made results in a creditreport being obtained from credit bureau 601. Once the bureau serverqueue 605 has obtained the credit report, point 8 indicates that thedata is transmitted to parser 606 for parsing the relevant data from thecredit report received. Block 607 represents the parser execution logic.Once the parsing has occurred, a report-notify indication is providedfrom parser 606 to bureau server 602 at point 9. Armed with the parsedinformation, bureau server 602 then transmits at point 10 a request toget results to decision engine build profile module 603. Decision enginebuild profile module 603 builds a profile of the debtor based on theparsed credit bureau information or credit report, the extract list,report list, and relational database entries. The decision engine buildprofile module 603 at point 11 may update the particular debtor profileif certain credit information has become available, entering theadditional information in the RDBMS 604.

The decision engine decide module 608 combined with the decision enginebuild profile module 603 generally forms the decision engine 206 in FIG.2. The decision engine decide module 608 may produce a set of criteriaor offer specifics approved by the creditor/credit agency based on thecircumstances presented. Decision module 609 essentially receives theinformation and provides/converts the information received into specificoffers, and provides the decision in the form of decision results,typically in MSMQ but potentially in other message formats.

While shown as two separate modules (decision engine decide module 608and decision module 609) in FIG. 6, referring to FIG. 2, the decisionengine 206 contains the Decide function. Thus the two modules 608 and609 illustrated in FIG. 6 could be combined into a single decisionmodule. Note that FIG. 6 illustrates various subfunctions within thedecision engine 206, including BuildProfile, which communicates with thereal-time external data source module, and the aforementioned Decide,which applies the rules to the compiled profile, generating offers as aresult.

The MSMQ decision results message from decision module 609 is providedto fill request offers module 610, wherein fill request offers module610 is an offer database holding the offers previously made and queuesthe set of offers for transmission to the user/debtor. The user/debtorreceives the set of offers via consumer ASPX pageload module 611, whichloads the pages for transmission to the user/debtor. Any responses arereceived by the system at the consumer ASPX pageload module 611, whichmay transmit the received response in MSMQ or other appropriate messageformat to fill request offers module 610. At this point, when an offeror set of offers or other selection offered on the page has been actedupon by the user/debtor, and the decision received may be transmittedfrom fill request offers module 610 to decision module 609 and todecision engine decide module 608. The result is an appropriate action(negotiate, consider the transaction resolved, negotiation/sessionterminated, etc.) according to the rules established, including thepossibility of transmitting further sets of offers where approved. Notethat RDBMS 604 may be updated by process results from fill request ordermodule 610, namely results of approval and resolution of transaction,negotiation/session terminations, etc.

FIG. 7 illustrates a payment partner transaction flow 700 implemented,for example, using payment partner server 114. The third party paymentpartner supplies functions such as ACH (automated clearing house)processing, funds clearing and disbursement services tocreditors/clients. The third party payment partner receives funds onbehalf of clients, such as banks, credit grantors and collectionagencies, and holds and/or clears funds on behalf of clients. The system100 can deposit funds into a third party payment partner's trust accountby submitting all transactions electronically via the internet, forexample. The client-creditor can interface with the third party paymentpartner using the system by specifying rules and schemas according towhich the terms, conditions and fees of the third party payment partneris to handle funds. For example, if the funds are to be held for 3 daysor until approval has been received from the creditor before beingtransferred to account J, the third party payment partner holds and actson the funds according to the rules provided. Again, rules may beimplemented by the entity maintaining the server 102 separate from thecreditor, credit agency, or payment partner, such as governmentalregulations, usury requirements, and other appropriate data.

The third party payment partner typically can process debit cards,Master-Money cards, ACH, EFTs, and can originate transactions on behalfof clients-creditors as instructed by the client and/or its customers,can hold funds received from client's customers on behalf of the clientfor a fixed amount of time, such as up to 30 days, and can distributefunds to client accounts according to a client's electronicinstructions, based upon electronic distribution rules maintained on thesystem and set up by or on behalf of the client.

Stepping through FIG. 7, the user/debtor employs his or her userinterface device 106 to provide a payment, such as in the form of an EFTor credit card information at point 1. Server 102 receives this paymentinput and forwards the transaction to payment partner server 114 atpoint 2. The payment partner server issues an authorization requestrequesting authorization from the appropriate debt vehicle, such as thechecking account, savings account, credit card issuer, and so forth, oraccount 701, at point 3. Point 4 is an authorization response, eitherauthorizing the transaction or denying the transaction. If thetransaction is denied, the payment partner server may transmit thisinformation to server 102, which may act according to predeterminedrules in situations where payment is refused, such as by altering theoffer to only payments made over time, refusing to produce any furtheroffers and terminating the session, or other desired action. Whether ornot the transaction is approved, point 5 indicates that the transactionresult is provided to the user/debtor by server 102. If the transactionis approved, payment partner server 114 provides a settlement request atpoint 6 to a bin account provider or merchant account provider, and anindication of money deposited is made by the provider 702. Any fees toany related party are allocated at point 8, where a related party 703 isa party related to the resolved transaction, including but not limitedto the entity maintaining the server 102. Point 9 indicates that certaindisbursements may be requested by the server 102 to payment partner 114on a periodic basis, such as weekly or monthly, and point 10 indicatesmonies are deposited into client accounts 704 or creditor accounts 705according to the rules established.

Offers are not limited to simply financial terms. Each offer or set ofoffers discussed above may also include non-financial terms such as theoffer of a free product or service or, for example, some other type ofconvenience or right. The offering of these non-financial offers may begoverned by one or more rules considered by decision engine 206. Forexample, if a free product is offered for resolution of the transactionat 95% of the outstanding debt, a user/debtor owing $1000 may bepresented with a set of offers including an offer to resolve thetransaction for $950 plus a free version of his credit report, and thisdata may be presented to the user/debtor for selection.

As an option that may be used with the system 100 presented above, auser/debtor interacting with server 102 may improve his credit scoresubstantially in real-time while online with server 102. For example,the user/debtor may make a payment on a debt using the system 100. Thepayment is received and acted upon as shown in FIG. 7, and thus server102 has approval of the funds being available and transferred. From FIG.1, server 102 may report the satisfaction of payment to creditor server104 and/or credit bureau server 116. Upon receiving a report that a debthas been satisfied, the credit bureau server 116 may take payment ofthat debt into account and may recalculate the credit score based on theuser/debtor's current score. Computation of a credit score takes intoaccount a variety of factors and different credit bureaus may computedifferent credit scores with identical data, but in general satisfactionof an outstanding debt is a positive factor that may increase auser/debtor's credit score. If the credit score can and has beencalculated, the credit bureau server may transmit the updated creditscore back to the server 102 for transmission and display to the uservia debtor device 106. Alternately, the server 102 may understandgenerally how payment of a debt may affect credit score and may computea provisional or temporary credit score for the user/debtor based on theamount of debt satisfied and the conditions of satisfaction (immediatepayment, payment over time, etc.). For example, if based on an entirecredit history having a few delinquent debts and one bankruptcy fiveyears previously, the debtor's credit score is 612, satisfaction of anoutstanding $2000 debt may raise this credit score. For example, ifpayment of an outstanding debt for a debtor having a total outstandingdebt of between $20,000 and $30,000 and a credit score between 610 and620 typically raises the credit score by four points, the server 102 orthe credit bureau server 116 may indicate that the user's credit scoreeither may or will increase to 616.

FIG. 9 illustrates a general creditor/credit agency workflow for theembodiment disclosed with respect to, for example, FIGS. 1 and 2. Point901 establishes the creditor/credit agency account with server 102 andestablishes a general set of defaults for the creditor. Point 902configures settlement terms for the creditor/credit agency, such as byeither providing them verbally to an entity that can translate them intoserver appropriate terms, such as APX, scripts, or other appropriatesettlement terms. Point 903 uploads the debt portfolio, typically fromcreditor server 104 to server 102 via communications medium 108. Theportfolio includes all debts and identifying information relevant to thedebts, potentially including but not limited to debtor name, accountnumber, debt amount, date incurred, and so forth. Debtor addresses maybe uploaded at point 904, again from creditor server 104 to server 102.An optional portfolio rating may be provided at point 905 to rate theportfolio using an established rating system. For example, a portfoliomay be rated with letter grades (A, B, C, D, etc.) with A being the bestportfolio by some subjective measure. Number ratings may also beemployed (1 for high risk, 2 for medium risk, 3 for low risk, forexample) or other rating. These ratings may be used in certainsubsequent rules when developing offer sets. For example, a high riskportfolio may be granted a minimum financing rate of 12 percent perannum, while a low risk portfolio may be granted a minimum financingrate of 8 percent. These ratings may change as desired. Point 906indicates a communication with the debtors, such as by mail, email, textmessage, recorded phone message, or other means, thereby initiatingcontact with the debtor and beginning the transaction resolution usingthe current system 100. Note that debtor addresses may be periodicallyupdated, portfolios re-rated, and letters sent by the creditor/creditagency, the entity maintaining the server 102, or other appropriateand/or authorized entity.

FIG. 10 illustrates a general debtor workflow. At point 1001, a debtorreceives a letter or other communication providing the web site of theserver, perhaps identifying a specific debt or creditor, and perhapsproviding a key word or password or code know to and enabled to be usedat the web site of the server 102. The debtor at point 1002 may log ontothe web site, using his key word, password, or code as appropriate. Incertain circumstances and jurisdictions, an individual or entity mayneed to approve an entity such as a creditor, credit agency, or entitymaintaining server 102 obtaining his credit report. In such case, acredit report may be approved by the user indicating the obtainingentity is authorized to obtain a credit report on his behalf, shown asan option at point 1003. Rules may be established when a user does notallow a credit report to be obtained, or no credit report is available,wherein, for example, no offers are to be made, or alternately, only alimited set of offers (such as 100 percent of debt outstanding) may bepresented. These rules are established by either the creditor/creditagency or entity controlling server 102. After a period of time, whichmay be short or long depending on circumstances, the user/debtor mayreceive and view offers at point 1004. The user/debtor may select thebest offer at point 1005, and may pay debt at point 1006. An option thatmay be made available is for the user to view his/her credit report, bypurchasing it or other available options, and may view his or her creditscore in certain instances if offered at point 1007.

To provide a general feel for the type of screens that may beencountered/used by the entities accessing the system, a general set ofscreen shots is presented in FIGS. 11-22. These screen shots represent ageneral illustration of the present design, but alternate views,information, and layouts could be presented, and thus the screen shotspresented here are not intended to be limiting.

FIG. 11 shows an internet browser having settlement items particular toa credit bureau. In general, the bureau mapping function is beingaddressed in this screen, namely how the credit bureau module 202obtains the credit report from the credit bureau 116. The bureau mappingscreen 1101 indicates the bureau name, the type of report, an extractlist, and provides a listing on the right side of the bureau items to beextracted from the report retrieved (number of negative trades, numberof trades, high credit, etc.) An operator at this screen can select fromthe available fields on the left side of the screen, selecting thefields he or she wishes to include from the credit bureau module andpotentially parse using credit bureau module 202 and parser module 204.Again, schemas express shared vocabularies and allow machines to carryout rules. The schema for this creditor may include the rules to extractthe desired information from a credit report.

FIG. 12 presents a general set of settlement terms for a particularcreditor or credit agency. Screen 1201 includes the entity name(creditor/credit agency), and includes different levels of rules, suchas a 87 percent settlement and a 90 percent settlement. Offer variablesinclude expiration of 30 days or 25 days in the two circumstances, andguidelines include rules wherein if the current debt balance to thecreditor is greater than or equal to $500.00, the amount can be paid offat 97 percent over 30 days. If the accrued interest is greater than orequal to $1000.00. If the charge off amount is greater than or equal to$5000.00 then the value offered is 80 percent. The offers and guidelines1202 can be altered, and terms added, removed, or changed depending onthe desires of the creditor/credit agency or other entity. Effectivedates and expiration dates can be provided. Note that an option to addterms to a dictionary is provided in screen 1201.

FIG. 13 illustrates a settlement dictionary 1301, including in thisembodiment an option 1302 to create and edit debt settlement items andassign tags, such as XML tags, to match source data. The various debtsettlement items in this view include, under the specific creditor andthe dictionary “Debt,” the entries Account Status, Accrual Interest,Age, and so forth, each representing a dictionary term that can bematched to a credit report entry or other database entry. Point 1302includes the item or tag, for example in XML format, its type, and point1303 indicates that the item “Age” can be created using a formula, suchas “Current Date” minus “Debt Date.”

FIG. 14 represents a general format for reports, specifically reportingcollection statistics for a debt portfolio. In this view, at point 1401,the date and time are provided, the number of accounts in the portfolio,the total debt amount, number of accounts that have settled, percentageof accounts settled, amount of debt settled, percentage of all debtsettled, resolution amount, percentage of total debt settled, percentageof settled debt settled, total collected, and percentage of transactionresolution amount. Reports can be provided in various formats.

FIG. 15 illustrates a general blank form including fields that may befilled with settlement offer data and presented to a creditor forpurposes of issuing settlement offers. Inputs may include accountnumber, status, name, original creditor, principal balance, currentbalance, sets of available settlements, proposals received from debtors,and counter offer. The screen shot of FIG. 15 may be presented to acreditor if the creditor wishes to have an ability to dynamically makesettlement offers to the debtor. In this view, four editable fields arepresented as well as two calculated fields. A creditor/credit agencyhaving the screen of FIG. 15 before her may know the specifics of thedebt and the state of negotiations to date, and may enter a downpayment, a term, an interest rate, and an expiration rate, which may bereceived by server 102 and presented to the user/debtor via debtordevice 106. The “calculate” option calculates the monthly rate and totalof debt paid using a specific term and interest rate entered, while“Submit to Debtor” allows the creditor/credit agency to send the offerto the creditor via server 102. Note that if the offer violates anyrules for the creditor/credit agency, such as being too low an interestrate for the circumstances presented, the server 102 may present thecreditor/credit agency with a warning. Again, the offers correspond tothe set of rules, wherein one rule may be that offers submitted by alive person via an interface such as that shown in FIG. 15 override allother rules.

FIG. 16 illustrates a portfolio manager and shows the concept ofOrgUnits. In FIG. 16, Test Master is a portfolio of Test Region, whichis a sub-OrgUnit of First Performance. Test Master includes varioussettlement dictionaries and portfolios, and to the right is the OrgUnit,portfolio name, number of accounts, assigned total, adjusted total,number settled, assigned settled, and payments received. This enables auser to create a new portfolio or modify an existing portfolio. Asnoted, sub-OrgUnits can inherit the properties of parent OrgUnits. FIG.17 shows a rule manager for the portfolio created, where rules can beadded to a portfolio as desired. For example, for OrgUnit Test Region,Portfolio name Test Master, rules can be created for settling debt ortransferring debt, such as the portfolio cannot offer an interest rateof less than 8 percent per year and can be sold to an entity offeringover 50 cents on the dollar.

FIG. 18 illustrates the concept of “Child Portfolios,” where additionalportfolios may be added. In this view, FPGroup 2, FPGroup 22, andFPGroup3 are child portfolios of Test Master. Child portfolios mayinherit the attributes and rules of the parent portfolio, and may havedifferent or additional rules. Child portfolios enable categorizationand metrics to be measured for sub-segments of portfolios, and canportray a better picture of the debt settlement position for theportfolio. FIG. 19 shows a dictionary manager screen, where a dictionarymay be imported for a portfolio. In this instance, 30, 60, and 90 daydictionaries are available, where the time period represents thedelinquency time of the debts in the portfolio. These dates canrepresent maximum, minimum, average, or other time periods ofdelinquency. For example, for a debt over 30 days old, the 30 daydictionary may apply, where such a dictionary may enable certain optionsand rules that the 90 day dictionary does not include. The concept ofImport and Target dictionaries are shown in FIG. 19, where an importdictionary may be imported from another OrgUnit, for example, or from aremote location. A target dictionary may represent potentialdictionaries applicable to the specific debt portfolio and may applyonly to that debt portfolio.

FIG. 20 shows a selected dictionary, here the import dictionary, and itsattributes, namely that it is shared by seven accounts and may be set asexclusive to this portfolio. If the dictionary is set exclusive, aspectsmay be changed for this dictionary and not applied to the other sixaccounts.

FIG. 21 illustrates a screen shot 2101 viewable by a debtor/user. Theindividual's name is presented here, as is the creditor, referencenumber, purchase date, principal, contact information (with options toupdate the information) and notably two options for settlement. In thisview, the balance due is $1153.85, and the transaction resolution offerset includes an offer to pay $84.62 now, expiration date Apr. 21, 2004,or pay $230.77 now and $81.15 monthly for 12 months, interest rate of 10percent. The second offer in the offer set expires on Apr. 6, 2004. Theuser may accept either offer in the offer set, or may select an optionto submit her own offer for consideration. Again, this offer to enablethe user to submit an offer depends on the rules established for thecreditor, credit agency, debtor, and transaction to be resolved.

A second screen shot of settlement terms is presented in FIG. 22. FromFIG. 22, offer variables and guidelines, each a different set of rules,are presented. The offer is simply one of 90 percent settlement 2201.The requirements in this instance are if the user/debtor is employed,then Value is set equal to 10, and the Downpayment is equal to 90, a 90percent settlement, at point 2202. Guidelines establish that the numberof days to collect is less than 30, meaning the 90 percent must becollected within 30 days. Note that the 90 percent offer expires at 7days. Effective dates and cancellation dates are provided. This versionmay be presented to either a creditor or the entity maintaining theserver, and terms may be entered and/or changed as desired.

Alternate Transaction Resolution Scenarios

While the foregoing generally discusses resolving transactions withrespect to a specific debt settlement scenario, the invention is not solimiting. In particular, the present system may be employed, includingthe rules, schemas, dictionaries, modules, servers, and components toresolve other types of transactions.

For example, the present system and general methodology may be employedto seek and obtain charitable donations. Obtaining credit reports may ormay not be practical in such a situation, but general information may beobtained about the contributor using different sources. As with theprior system, certain contributors may be provided with a web siteaddress and may be provided with a numeric indicator, such as acontributor number. Such a contributor may have a history ofcontributing certain amounts to various institutions and may thereforehave a profile available.

Generally, the contributor may log in to the web site maintained by acharity or group of charities using debtor device 106 and may log intoserver 102. The server may rely on account/transaction database 118 forinformation on the user/contributor. Alternately, if externalinformation may be obtained on the user/contributor from an externalsource, such as a credit bureau, database containing personal data, orinternet source, such a source may be utilized to augment the profile ofthe individual. The user/contributor may be asked to respond to certainquestions, such as income level, current home address, or currentbusiness address and position. Rules may then be applied by the serveras described above to develop a set of offers, where offers may includea one-time gift or a payment option, possibly including free offers witheach offer. For example, if absolutely nothing is known about acontributor, and the contributor does not provide significantsubstantive information in response to questions, such as refusing tospecify income level, a default level of participation may be provided,such as options of $25, $50, $100, $250, or $500, or payments of $25 or$50 per month for a year. However, if certain information is known, theindividual may be presented with different offers. For example, if theindividual earns over $150,000 per year and is known to have madecontributions to the present charity of over $1000 over the past yearand other charities over $1000 in the past year, this may trigger arule. For example, if the user/contributor has contributed more than$500 but less than $2000 over the past year and has a stated annualincome of over $100,000, the server 102 may present the user/contributorwith options of $500, $1000, $2000, and $5000 for immediatecontribution, with his/her name mentioned as a bronze, silver, gold, andplatinum contributor, respectively, in an annual charity publication.The user can select one of these, or an alternative selection, where theuser/contributor may enter additional information, may be provided. Forexample, if the user/contributor wishes to specifically contribute$1500, she may enter that amount, or may enter a desired amount of $150per month for 12 months. Subsequent rules may come into play, butgenerally the amount contributed may be accepted and the transactionresolved. Payment may be made as stated previously, where the charitystands in the place of the creditor in the foregoing description. Notethat certain modules in the embodiment of FIG. 2 may be unnecessary orhave different functionality. If a credit bureau is not contacted butthe accounts database 118 or other charity relevant database iscontacted, credit bureau module 202 and parser module 204 seeks theinformation requested from the relevant data source and may parse theinformation obtained. Further, a portfolio manager 220 in this instancemay be a charitable contribution manager, enabling contributions to beallocated to appropriate recipients according to predetermined rules.

An alternate example is a settlement of an insurance claim. In thepresent system 100, the user may be an individual or entity having aclaim or rights to a claim, or appropriate representative, called herethe claimant. The user/claimant may log into the server 102, and theserver may be connected to, for example, a credit bureau server 116 andaccount/transaction database 118 or other external database or source ofdata. In this scenario, the account database may include previoussettlement offers made to the user/claimant, financial information aboutthe claimant obtained from legal sources, severity of theinjury/accident, or other relevant information. Based on the informationavailable, as well as any history of claims paid for similar claimstypically available in account/transaction database 118, the server mayprepare a set of insurance settlement offers according to rulesestablished by the insurer. For example, if the injury is a death of aperson with no immediate family, aged 58, caused by a car accident, theclaimant may be offered $500,000 now, or $30,000 per year for 20 years,or $25,000 per year for 30 years. According to the rules presented bythe insurer, the claimant may be entitled to accept the settlement ormay provide alternate terms. The aspects of the current design dealingwith payment (ETF, credit card payments, etc.) would typically not berequired, but once the transaction is resolved according to the rulesprovided and the agreement obtained, the payment may be authorized andpaid by a third party or by the creditor as appropriate. The informationregarding resolution, such as the fact that the claim has been settledand the portfolio of claims and reports, may be generated whereappropriate.

Other examples of resolving transactions may be realized using thecurrent design.

By the foregoing description, an improved system and method fortransaction resolution have been described. The improved system andmethod may be substantially or completely internet based such that theuser can access the settlement server to resolve transactions, such asmanage debt, from a platform providing, for example, Internet browsingcapabilities.

The foregoing description of specific embodiments reveals the generalnature of the disclosure sufficiently that others can, by applyingcurrent knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt the system and method forvarious applications without departing from the general concept.Therefore, such adaptations and modifications are within the meaning andrange of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. The phraseology orterminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not oflimitation.

1. A method for settling a transaction, comprising: establishing networkcommunications between a user and a server; receiving information, atthe server, regarding the transaction; seeking available informationpertinent to the transaction from at least one source external to theserver and the user; processing data from the available informationusing a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of aparty to the transaction located at the server; and presenting atransaction settlement offer set to the user based on at least onedecision made by the rules based engine.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the user comprises a debtor and the transaction comprises a debtowed by the debtor.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the availableinformation comprises a credit report associated with the debtor.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein rules in the rules based engine areestablished by a credit entity having rights to the debt.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the rules based engine relies on at least onedictionary employed to translate received information into informationused within the server.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thetransaction settlement offer set comprises at least one offer formedaccording to rules established by a credit entity having an interest inthe transaction.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising enablingthe user to make a different offer than any offer provided in thetransaction settlement offer set.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinprocessing data from the available financial information comprisesparsing the available information to obtain only that informationrequired to produce the transaction settlement offer set.
 9. The methodof claim 8, wherein the transaction settlement offer set comprises anincentive to the user to settle the debt by communications with theserver.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules engine comprisesrules that consider the user's ability to sufficiently resolve thetransaction.
 11. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing analternative settlement offer set that differs from any offer in thetransaction settlement offer set.
 12. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising approving the alternative settlement based on predeterminedsettlement rules.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprisingpresenting the user with at least one payment option related to at leastone offer in the transaction settlement offer set.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the payment options comprise a discounted immediatepayment option and/or a periodic payment of a fixed monetary amount. 15.A method of settling a financial transaction between a user and a partyto the financial transaction, comprising: establishing networkcommunications between the user and a server; seeking availableinformation regarding the transaction from a source separate from theserver and the user, and when information is available regarding thetransaction, receiving the available information at the server;processing available data regarding the transaction at the server usingrules established on behalf of the party to the transaction; andpresenting a transaction settlement offer set to the user based on atleast one decision made according to the rules established on behalf ofthe party to the financial transaction.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the user comprises a debtor and the transaction comprises a debtowed by the debtor.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the availableinformation comprises a credit report associated with the debtor. 18.The method of claim 15, further comprising enabling the user to make adifferent offer than any offer provided in the transaction settlementoffer set.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein processing data from theavailable information comprises parsing the available information toobtain only that information required to produce the transactionsettlement offer set.
 20. A method of settling a financial transactionbetween a debtor and a creditor, comprising: establishing networkcommunications between the debtor and a server; seeking a credit reportfor the user, and when the credit report is available, receiving thecredit report at the server; processing the credit report at the serverusing rules established by the creditor; and presenting a transactionsettlement offer set to the debtor based on at least one decision madeaccording to the rules established by the creditor.